This semester as part of the music education side of my degree, I am in choir. Keep in mind that while I am not against choir by any means I grew up in a school district where the choir director retired and was never replaced. I had pretty much no choir experience nor anything to use as tools when we did our high school musicals and had frankly no clue what I was doing. My only saving grace was I could carry a tune and had decent ears as well as a good musical memory.
This semester in choir, it is interesting hearing everything and the differences between the choir world and instrumental world. It does seem like in this semester rhythm is not as strong in choir as it is usually in my instrumental ensembles. I think this though doesn’t come from poor teaching or anything like that but it seems like there is much more room for interpretation and time in some choir pieces where in an instrumental ensemble time is everything it seems.
While I am an instrumentalist through and through I think too there are certain things that the voice has a distinctive advantage over instrumentalists and just the actual process of singing. When I did the DO Solo competition recently, I was asked if I could physically emote more of the musicality but as a musician playing the french horn moving and emoting a phrase in a physical way is really challenging. Singers can make facial expressions and even move! A big advantage.
This whole choir experience for me has been a positive one and I have enjoyed my time in choir a lot. The repertoire we are doing is really deep, heart tugging stuff, and I think that it is a great group of musicians in there. The last thing I have done with a choir was an Armed man a mass for peace and I played horn but that was some really deep, moving stuff that I think is always worth a listen. think that as an instrumentalist you can learn a lot from a choir to take to your future teaching, playing, and musicianship. I would think the same would be true for choir kids experiencing the band world. With just a couple weeks left I am excited for this upcoming concert and have attached a link to the work we are performing as well as The Armed Man. I would recommend coming to the concert if you are looking for something to do because it should be a positive musical experience!
My favorite movement…
What we are working on in choir now (one of the works at least)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heyTxepuodE